Ordinary

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ordinary \Or"di*na*ry\, n.; pl. {Ordinaries} (-r[i^]z).
     1. (Law)
        (a) (Roman Law) An officer who has original jurisdiction
            in his own right, and not by deputation.
        (b) (Eng. Law) One who has immediate jurisdiction in
            matters ecclesiastical; an ecclesiastical judge; also,


            a deputy of the bishop, or a clergyman appointed to
            perform divine service for condemned criminals and
            assist in preparing them for death.
        (c) (Am. Law) A judicial officer, having generally the
            powers of a judge of probate or a surrogate.
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     2. The mass; the common run. [Obs.]
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              I see no more in you than in the ordinary
              Of nature's salework.                 --Shak.
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     3. That which is so common, or continued, as to be considered
        a settled establishment or institution. [R.]
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              Spain had no other wars save those which were grown
              into an ordinary.                     --Bacon.
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     4. Anything which is in ordinary or common use.
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              Water buckets, wagons, cart wheels, plow socks, and
              other ordinaries.                     --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
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     5. A dining room or eating house where a meal is prepared for
        all comers, at a fixed price for the meal, in distinction
        from one where each dish is separately charged; a table
        d'h[^o]te; hence, also, the meal furnished at such a
        dining room. --Shak.
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              All the odd words they have picked up in a
              coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as
              flowers of style.                     --Swift.
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              He exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and
              peddlers and to ordinaries.           --Bancroft.
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     6. (Her.) A charge or bearing of simple form, one of nine or
        ten which are in constant use. The {bend}, {chevron},
        {chief}, {cross}, {fesse}, {pale}, and {saltire} are
        uniformly admitted as ordinaries. Some authorities include
        bar, bend sinister, pile, and others. See {Subordinary}.
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     {In ordinary}.
        (a) In actual and constant service; statedly attending and
            serving; as, a physician or chaplain in ordinary. An
            ambassador in ordinary is one constantly resident at a
            foreign court.
        (b) (Naut.) Out of commission and laid up; -- said of a
            naval vessel.
  
     {Ordinary of the Mass} (R. C. Ch.), the part of the Mass
        which is the same every day; -- called also the {canon of
        the Mass}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ordinary \Or"di*na*ry\, a. [L. ordinarius, fr. ordo, ordinis,
     order: cf. F. ordinaire. See {Order}.]
     1. According to established order; methodical; settled;
        regular. "The ordinary forms of law." --Addison.
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     2. Common; customary; usual. --Shak.
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              Method is not less requisite in ordinary
              conversation that in writing.         --Addison.
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     3. Of common rank, quality, or ability; not distinguished by
        superior excellence or beauty; hence, not distinguished in
        any way; commonplace; inferior; of little merit; as, men
        of ordinary judgment; an ordinary book.
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              An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no
              useful knowledge in such a way.       --Macaulay.
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     {Ordinary seaman} (Naut.), one not expert or fully skilled,
        and hence ranking below an {able seaman}.
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     Syn: Normal; common; usual; customary.
  
     Usage: See {Normal}. -- {Ordinary}, {Common}. A thing is
            common in which many persons share or partake; as, a
            common practice. A thing is ordinary when it is apt to
            come round in the regular common order or succession
            of events.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ordinary
       adj 1: not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability
              or size or degree; "ordinary everyday objects";
              "ordinary decency"; "an ordinary day"; "an ordinary
              wine" [ant: {extraordinary}]
       2: lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly
          encountered; "average people"; "the ordinary (or common)
          man in the street" [syn: {average}]
       n 1: a judge of a probate court
       2: the expected or commonplace condition or situation; "not out
          of the ordinary"
       3: a clergyman appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for
          death
       4: an early bicycle with a very large front wheel and small
          back wheel [syn: {ordinary bicycle}]
       5: (heraldry) any of several conventional figures used on
          shields

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  364 Moby Thesaurus words for "ordinary":
     American plan, Attic, Babbittish, European plan, JA, Philistine,
     a la carte, accepted, accustomed, achievement, alerion,
     amicus curiae, animal charge, annulet, argent, armorial bearings,
     armory, arms, assessor, average, azure, banal, bandeau, bar,
     bar sinister, barmaster, baseborn, baton, bearings, below the salt,
     bend, bend sinister, besetting, billet, bizarre, blazon, blazonry,
     boardinghouse, bordure, bourgeois, broad arrow, cadency mark,
     campy, canton, central, chancellor, chaplet, charge, chaste,
     chevron, chief, circuit judge, classic, classical, coat of arms,
     cockatrice, cockney, common, commonplace, conformable,
     consuetudinary, convention, conventional, coronet, couvert, cover,
     cover charge, crescent, crest, cross, cross moline, crown, curious,
     current, customary, demeaning, device, difference, differencing,
     different, disadvantaged, dominant, dorm, dormitory, doss house,
     dull, eagle, eccentric, epidemic, ermine, ermines, erminites,
     erminois, escutcheon, established, everyday, exceptional, expected,
     extraordinary, fair, falcon, familiar, fess, fess point, field,
     file, flanch, flat, fleabag, fleur-de-lis, flophouse, frequent,
     frequentative, fret, fur, fusil, garden, garden variety,
     garden-variety, garland, general, generally accepted, griffin,
     guest house, gules, gyron, habitual, hatchment, helmet,
     heraldic device, high-camp, homely, homespun, honor point, hospice,
     hostel, hostelry, hotel, household, humble, humdrum, impalement,
     impaling, in the shade, inescutcheon, inferior, infra dig, inn,
     insipid, intermediary, intermediate, judge advocate,
     judge ordinary, junior, jurat, justice in eyre, justice of assize,
     kitschy, label, lay judge, legal assessor, less, lesser, lion,
     lodging house, low, low-camp, lowborn, lowbred, lower, lowly,
     lozenge, mantling, many, many times, marshaling, martlet, mascle,
     master, matter-of-fact, mean, medial, median, mediocre, medium,
     metal, middle-class, middle-of-the-road, middling, military judge,
     minor, moderate, modest, motto, mullet, mundane, natural,
     no great shakes, nombril point, nonclerical, nondescript, norm,
     normal, normative, not rare, obtaining, octofoil, odd,
     of common occurrence, offbeat, oft-repeated, oftentime, ombudsman,
     or, original, orle, outlandish, pale, paly, pandemic, passable,
     pean, peasant, peculiar, pedestrian, pension, pheon, picturesque,
     plain, plastic, plebeian, poetryless, police judge, pop, popular,
     posada, predominant, predominating, prescribed, prescriptive,
     presiding judge, prevailing, prevalent, probate judge, prosaic,
     prosing, prosy, provincial, pub, public, public house,
     puisne judge, pure, pure and simple, purpure, quaint, quarter,
     quartering, quotidian, rampant, rare, received, recorder,
     recurrent, regnant, regular, regulation, reigning, rife, roadhouse,
     rooming house, rose, routine, rude, ruling, run-of-mine,
     run-of-the-mill, running, sable, saltire, scutcheon, second rank,
     second string, secondary, self-service, service, servile, set,
     shabby-genteel, shield, simple, singular, so so, spread eagle,
     standard, status quo, stereotyped, stock, strange, striking, sub,
     subaltern, subject, subordinary, subordinate, subservient,
     suburban, tavern, tenne, the common, the commonplace, the normal,
     the ordinary, the usual, thick-coming, third rank, third string,
     third-estate, time-honored, tincture, tiresome, torse, traditional,
     tressure, typical, uncommon, unconventional, underprivileged,
     undistinguished, unembellished, uneventful, unexceptional,
     unexpected, unfamiliar, ungenteel, unicorn, unidealistic,
     unimaginative, unimpassioned, uninspired, unique, universal,
     unnoteworthy, unpoetic, unpretentious, unrefined, unremarkable,
     unromantic, unspectacular, unusual, usual, vair, vapid, vernacular,
     vert, vice-chancellor, vulgar, weird, widespread, wonted, workaday,
     workday, wreath, yale
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ORDINARY, civil and eccl. law. An officer who has original jurisdiction in 
  his  own right and not by deputation. 
       2. In England the ordinary is an officer who has immediate jurisdiction 
  in ecclesiastical causes. Co. Litt. 344. 
       3. In the United States, the ordinary possesses, in those states where 
  such officer exists, powers vested in him by the constitution and acts of 
  the legislature, In South Carolina, the ordinary is a judicial officer. 1 
  Rep. Const. Ct. 26; 2 Rep. Const. Ct. 384.